1. Field
The present application relates generally to wireless communication systems and more specifically to systems, methods, and devices for reduced connection latency with a wireless communication systems.
2. Background
In many telecommunication systems, communications networks are used to exchange messages among several interacting spatially-separated devices. Networks may be classified according to geographic scope, which could be, for example, a metropolitan area, a local area, or a personal area. Such networks would be designated respectively as a wide area network (WAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), local area network (LAN), or personal area network (PAN). Networks also differ according to the switching/routing technique used to interconnect the various network nodes and devices (e.g. circuit switching vs. packet switching), the type of physical media employed for transmission (e.g. wired vs. wireless), and the set of communication protocols used (e.g. Internet protocol (IP) suite, SONET (Synchronous Optical Networking), Ethernet, etc.).
Wireless networks are often preferred when the network elements are mobile and thus have dynamic connectivity needs, or if the network architecture is formed in an ad hoc, rather than fixed, topology. Wireless networks employ intangible physical media in an unguided propagation mode using electromagnetic waves in the radio, microwave, infra-red, optical, etc. frequency bands. Wireless networks advantageously facilitate user mobility and rapid field deployment when compared to fixed wired networks.
Before a device can communicate via a given network, the device may be required to identify and connect with an access point in order to gain access to the network. The device may discover an access point via various transmissions of wireless signals, e.g., a beacon signal from an access point indicating the presence and availability of services. A device may further seek services following the receipt of a broadcast message requesting services. An access point in receipt of the broadcast message or an association request following a beacon may then respond to the device, in some cases providing a requested network address or other information requested by the device. The device may request information regarding other devices or access points in the network such as network addresses (e.g., IP addresses or Medium access control (MAC) addresses). As multiple devices enter or leave a given service area associated with an access point, communications traffic increases, increasing the rate of data collisions, overhead, and latency, while decreasing overall efficiency.
In current implementations, many wireless communications systems employ a serial communications scheme in which, for example, a device requesting association with an access point may sequentially transmit a series of communications to the access point, first requesting association, and later requesting further information, at which point the access point may respond sequentially to such communications. Following transmission of an association response to the device in response, the access point may for example then request additional information from the network to provide to the device; however the access point does not request such information from the network (e.g., network addresses and MAC addresses of other devices or a DHCP server) until such a request is made by the device. Such a sequential or serial communications scheme may add to the latency of the communications between a device and the access point.
Therefore it would be advantageous to provide a system and method to increase the efficiency and reduce latency in wireless communication by performing some processes in parallel.